Chapter 4 #3
Grace’s heart sank. ‘You’re probably right, darling, but there’s no chance of that happening. She refuses to go to any of Helen’s singles things – she won’t entertain the idea of meeting anyone new.’
‘I’m not talking about her meeting anyone new,’ Rachel said mysteriously. ‘I’m thinking of someone she already knows.’
‘You have someone in mind?’
‘Yes – someone she’s crazy about.’
Grace thought. There was only one person who fitted this description.
‘Oh, Rachel,’ she said, ‘I don’t think there’s any chance of Freddie going back into the wardrobe.’
‘What?’ Rachel screeched. ‘I’m not talking about Freddie, Mum,’ she said crossly, ‘and it’s the closet, not the wardrobe.’
‘I thought only Americans said “closet”?’
‘Not in that context. Besides, you just come out of it, you don’t go back in.’
‘Oh! Well, if you’re not talking about Freddie, who are you talking about?’
‘Will.’
‘Will?’
‘Will.’
‘Will,’ Grace heaved a great sigh of contentment.
* * *
A few days later, Grace and Rachel sashayed into Will’s plush offices, both dressed to the nines.
Rachel had never been an enthusiastic member of the workforce.
She had done a little modelling in her teens and early twenties but lacked the self-discipline and commitment to make a career of it.
Since then she had dabbled in this and that, working in fashionable boutiques, doing a little PR work for well-connected friends, occasionally fronting a smart restaurant or nightclub but mainly just biding her time until she got married.
Now she had given up all pretence of having a job and devoted herself full-time to being a barrister’s wife and a lady who lunched.
Grace waved airily at Louise, Will’s PA then sailed past her and into Will’s office before the young woman had a chance to stop her.
Will was at his desk, making a voice memo on his phone. He looked startled when Grace burst in, followed swiftly by Rachel. ‘Chase Ian for the contracts,’ he finished, looking up and nodding hello, ‘and get Clare to contact the people from MTV.’
‘Grace, Rachel.’ He greeted them with a smile, leaning back in his chair and tossing the phone onto his desk. ‘This is a surprise.’ He gestured them to seats. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure?’
‘Sorry for bursting in on you like this, Will,’ Grace began, ‘but we needed to talk to you rather urgently – and in private,’ she mouthed confidentially.
Grace was a sort of method actress in reverse, using former stage roles to inspire her performance in real-life situations. For today’s meeting with Will she was borrowing from her critically acclaimed turn as Mrs Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, all fluttering helplessness and breathless distress.
‘Is everything all right?’ Will asked, clearly concerned.
‘Things have been better,’ Grace told him.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘We need your help, Will, with a family matter,’ Grace said, breathing from the top of her chest to achieve just the right note of imminent hysteria.
Will looked alarmed now.
‘You’re getting him all wound up, Mum,’ Rachel said. To Will she said, ‘Don’t look so worried – it’s not that serious. Mum’s just being dramatic, as usual.’
‘Not that serious?’ Grace exclaimed. ‘It’s only your sister’s life!’
‘Is Kate in some sort of trouble? Will one of you please tell me what’s going on?’ Will begged.
‘Yes, it’s Kate.’ Grace had finally collected herself enough to speak plainly. ‘She’s got engaged.’
‘Oh! To the so-called Woodcutter?’ Will asked chirpily – too chirpily: he received a withering look from Grace.
‘Tree-hugger,’ Rachel muttered.
‘Sorry?’
‘The so-called Tree-hugger, not Woodcutter.’
‘Oh, right.’ Will waited expectantly for more. ‘And?’ he asked, when nothing else was forthcoming.
‘Well, none of us like him,’ Grace said. ‘He’s wrong for Kate – he’ll make her miserable.’
‘I know Lorcan doesn’t think much of him.’
‘None of us do.’
‘Except Kate.’ Will winced as his piquant observation was met with another glare from Grace.
‘We need your help, Will.’ Grace was trying to impress the seriousness of the situation on him. ‘You’re our only hope.’
‘Well, I can see you’re upset about it,’ he smiled sympathetically, ‘but I don’t see what it’s got to do with me.’
‘Don’t you?’ Grace asked. ‘No.’ She sighed. ‘I suppose you wouldn’t.’
‘So?’ Will raised his eyebrows enquiringly.
‘We have to put a stop to it and save Kate from a lifetime of unhappiness. The whole family are united on this. Everyone’s doing their bit.’
‘I see,’ Will said cautiously, not really seeing at all but rather dreading the moment when all would become clear. He sensed he was going to be asked to do something deeply unpleasant.
‘We want Kate to break it off of her own accord,’ Grace explained, ‘so we’re going to do everything we can to make her change her mind about the Tree-hugger.’
‘And where do I come into all this?’
‘Kate has a crush on you,’ Rachel said, matter-of-factly. ‘Always has had.’
‘Oh, I don’t think—’
‘Don’t be so modest, Will.’ Grace was cheering up now. ‘Of course she does. What young girl wouldn’t?’
‘We thought you could lure her away from the Tree-hugger,’ Rachel said.
‘Yes,’ Grace continued, more breezily now, ‘we thought you might – you know – encourage her a bit.’
Will was aghast. ‘You mean…’ He didn’t quite know how to say what he thought she meant.
‘Flirt with her a bit, show an interest,’ Grace said cosily.
‘You want me to seduce Kate?’ Will asked bluntly, hoping he would shame them into backing off. No such luck.
‘Oh, don’t make it sound so Tess of the d’Urbervilles,’ Grace said. ‘You don’t have to go that far.’
‘We don’t expect you to make the ultimate sacrifice,’ Rachel added sarcastically.
‘It’s just that we feel the best way – the only way – to get Kate away from the Tree-hugger is to get her thinking about someone else,’ Grace went on. ‘If she thought you were interested in her, she’d drop him like a hot potato.’
‘Yes, but I’m not interested in her,’ Will said. ‘Well, you know, not in that way.’
‘Of course you’re not. We know that,’ Rachel said, earning herself a hard look from Will. He’d never had much time for Rachel, whom he considered vain, spoilt and self-centred. He thought Kate was worth ten of her.
‘What about Tina?’ he said, clutching at straws. ‘How do you think she’ll feel if I start hitting on Kate?’
Grace restrained herself from telling Will that she didn’t care how Tina would feel – in fact, she hoped it would put the spoilt, sulky little madam’s nose very firmly out of joint.
Anyway, if Tina got the hump about Kate and broke up with Will, it would be killing two birds with one stone.
Tina was nowhere near good enough for Will, and she spent too much time away from him, constantly jet-setting around the world in pursuit of her career.
Will needed more stability in his life, she thought, and a damn sight more affection and good humour than could be found in that bag of bones.
Still, now wasn’t the time to be telling him what she thought about his girlfriend. ‘It doesn’t have to be anything too blatant,’ she assured him, ‘just flirting and subtle hints that she can think she’s misinterpreted.’
‘But isn’t this a bit…’ Will bit his lip.
‘I know what you’re thinking, Will,’ Grace reassured him, ‘but sometimes we have to be cruel to be kind. We’re just thinking of Kate’s long-term happiness. Believe me, if we thought there was any other way, we wouldn’t ask you this.’
‘But I hardly even see Kate any more,’ Will protested.
‘Well, we can soon fix that,’ Grace said, ‘starting with next weekend. We want you to come to Cork with the family. We’ll gang up on the Tree-hugger and you can go to work on Kate.’
‘Well, of course I’ll come, but it sounds like a long-term project and I’ll be away for most of the summer. I’m taking the band to Tuscany to work on the next album.’
‘I know – perfect!’ Grace trilled.
‘How is that perfect?’ Will asked warily.
‘We want you to take Kate with you,’ Grace announced triumphantly.
‘I’m not the Foreign Legion, Grace.’
‘We don’t need the Foreign Legion. Kate isn’t suffering from a broken heart.’
‘Not yet,’ Will said, lip curling. ‘I gather that’s where I come in.
Anyway, it’s a working holiday, not a house party,’ he said.
‘I want to get the band isolated in a villa in the middle of nowhere where they can get some work done. I really can’t have any hangers-on.
Besides, Kate isn’t likely to hare off to Tuscany with me out of the blue when she’s just got engaged. ’
‘I’m not suggesting you take Kate as a guest. You could bring her as your cook. You will need one, won’t you?’
‘Well… yes.’
‘And Kate is a fantastic cook, as you know.’
‘And she needs a job, so she’s bound to go for it,’ Rachel added.
‘See? Perfect!’ Grace trilled again.
Will felt cornered. Grace was a hard woman to say no to, especially when he owed her so much. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘Kate may have had a crush on me when she was a teenager, but that was a long time ago.’
‘Well, give it a try anyway,’ Grace said briskly, ‘and if she doesn’t go for you, don’t worry too much about it.’
Will stopped himself saying he hadn’t planned to.
‘There’s more than one way to skin a cat, you know,’ Grace added.
Will grimaced. What the O’Neills wanted him to do to Kate was sounding more alarming by the minute.
‘I just mean that if you take her to Tuscany, you can show her a different lifestyle, turn her head a little. Once she’s had a taste of the high life there’s no way she’ll want to go back to Mr Brown Rice and Pushbikes.
Besides,’ Grace pointed out brightly, ‘maybe one of the boys in your band will fall for her.’
Christ! Will thought. Kate’s boyfriend must be some piece of work if Grace thinks one of ‘the boys’ is a more suitable prospect.
‘It’s not that I don’t want to help, Grace. You know I’d do anything for you and your family. It just seems a bit… extreme.’